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Mark Uricheck
NEPAtoday.com Music Contributor

NORTHEASTERN, Pa. - The Ten Cent Millionaires are rag tag band of rogue musicians who've infiltrated the music world with the sole intention of bringing us all a heavy helping of melodic, driving, at times Beatle-esque rock 'n roll.

Well, the part about the music's true, but who they are is actually a seasoned collection of professional musicians brought together by The Hooters bassist Fran Smith Jr.

Collectively, Fran Smith Jr. and The Ten Cent Millionaires have released Man Meets Machine, a CD full of spirited rockers, infectious melodies, and endearing quirkiness that makes for one gem of an independent release.

The story of the CD is as follows. On a break from The Hooters, Fran Smith had some songs he was working on that he wanted to be recorded. He enlisted the help of some longtime friends to realize his project. Among the musicians Fran worked with on the record are guitarist Keith Mack, who once played with the 80's band Scandal, former Styx member Glen Burtnik, Hooters main men Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, and guitarist Steve Butler.

"Everybody that worked on the record I've known for years" says Fran. "Keith Mack I've worked with before, Glen and I were in a band together (Cats On a Smooth Surface) and he'd just left Styx so that was perfect timing, Eric and Rob of course I've known from The Hooters. Steve Butler, that was actually the First time I had a chance to get into the studio with him. He lives around the corner from me. He's in a band called Smash Palace."

Fran says the core of The Ten Cent Millionaires, drummer Joey Maressa and keyboardist Anthony Maressa, he's known since the 70's. This record definitely has the close-knit vibe of a family affair.

Interestingly, though overall a fresh batch of songs, Fran says a few of the songs on Man Meets Machine were taken from his days as a member of the late 70's/early 80's band The Pedestrians. "It's really funny, some of these tunes I purposely took from almost my childhood writing and approached it as 'ok, somebody gave me this song; how would I approach it at this age'. It's not with all of the songs, just a few of them. But I just basically re-wrote them the way I would approach a song now."

The songs that comprise Man Meets Machine are undeniably solid. There's the super-rocking Rudy, Fran's dead-on Paul McCarntey channeling of Redberry Shangrala, the upbeat pop of Uniforms and the rousing crowd pleaser That's The Way I Will Remember. This song features Fran's Hooter bandmates Eric and Rob, and was audience tested on the last couple of Hooter tours.


"There was a hole in the setlist, so I approached Rob and Eric and said 'what's going on here'. They said 'we're waiting on that spot, we're still tweaking it'. So, we're friends, so I suggested we play that song. We actually played that one on the whole Hooters tour last year in Europe. It was like the third song, and people went totally nuts. Everybody knew the words by about the third concert; people were already singing it. So we did it every night for 7 weeks." Fran says.

Another standout on the CD is Fran's hilarious dramatization of a supermarket environment entitled Demented Supermarket. "I write comedy as much as I write music" Fran says. "It's the other part of me. Everybody has that situation where they go into a supermarket and you hear the music with somebody talking over it. You can almost hear a conversation going on. So I had this keyboard riff that fit the Muzak you hear, and I did these announcements over it." The result is quite memorable.

Overall, Fran's pleased with the project. " I like Waiting In The Rain, Nothing In Return and Leonardo, that's my favorite" says Fran. "And I got a chance to use some of my rock chops, screaming and stuff like that, which I really like doing. I like incorporating every nutty part of my vocal tone."

As far as live dates with Man Meets Machine, Fran anticipates working both solo and with a band. "What I'm going to try to do is sort of a dual thing" he says. "I want to be able to go out and play solo acoustic stuff, just take my guitar up on stage and play. Then some situations would be the band thing." He notes that the live experience is still a great rush. "It's something I haven't experienced with my own material in a number of years. Just the response, I don't care is it's 15 people that come to listen to your songs. The gratification of somebody appreciating your songwriting abilities, that's it for me. That's the goal."

What Fran wants to convey most about this CD is that things are deeper than they seem. He says "For me, it's very spiritual in content. You can correlate deeper meanings to the lyrics. It's kind of like a stereogram, where you look at it and see one pattern, then start moving away from it and see another pattern emerging. It's simple music, its power-pop."

"Stuff that I would listen to, that's basically what I wrote."

Who can argue with that?

Man Meets Machine, as well as all things Fran, is available at Fran's web site: http://www.fransmithjr.com/.